So Far Away
by LynGuerra
Summary: [Formerly titled There Is No Sinner, Like A Young Saint/On Hiatus] After a friend was left dead by gang violence, Tae decides to make Stilwater a living hell for any new and rival gangs in Stilwater.
1. Tae and Tia

Tae wiped his grease stained hands on his, already, stained baggy white t-shirt. He took a deep breath through his nostrils. The pungent smell of grease, gasoline, and oil powered over his senses. Tae grabbed his toolbox and threw his wrenches inside. Before walking over to his boss, Samson, he turned down the radio playing Twista and Kanye West's song _Overnight Celebrity_. He patted his open palm on the purple Venom that Samson was detailing with a golden dragon outline. "That's a sweet ride. Who's the owner?"

"Gat." Samson said as he focused on the precision of his paint brush.

"Bryan Gat from Nob Hill?"

"No-"

The phone echoing in the office cut off Samson. Tae walked into the office and answered the customer call. "You've reached Samson's Chop Shop. My name's Taehyung. How can I help you?"

A raspy, but sexy female voice came over the phone. _"I need a car loaded with C4."_

Tae leaned on the office desk. "I'm sorry ma'am. We don't-"

 _"I know you guys gave The Rollerz some explosives. So, you're gonna help the us if you don't want a bullet in your brain!"_

Tae sighed. He rubbed scratched the top of his fresh crew cut he got from the barbers. He gabbed a sticky-note and a black sharpie.

"Can I get your name ma'am?" Tae asked the woman.

 _"Tanya Winters."_

Tae wrote down Tanya's name. He ripped the sticky-note off from the rest of the stack and stuck it on the edge of the desk with the other orders. "We'll be able to have you in next Monday, first thing in the morning."

 _"Tony!"_ Tanya yelled before the line died.

Tae placed the phone back on the hook. He walked back into the garage where his locker was. He unlocked the combination lock: left 6, right 24, left 18. Tae pulled the lock off. The rusted locker creaked when Tae opened it. He grabbed his black hoodie. He tied it around his waist rather than put it over his dark olive boiler suit that had his name patched in white cursive over the left chest of the suit. Tae grabbed his wallet and cellphone.

Samson looked over his shoulder to his only employee. "You done for tonight?"

Tae secured his locker with the lock after closing it. "Yeah, but if you need me to help with some of the work on the Venom, I'll stay."

"No." Samson smiled. "Playa, go home, get laid, relax."

"Thanks, man."

Tae patted Samson on his back before walking out the garage to enter the streets of Mission Beach. The dim street lights helped Tae see in the darkness. He walked through an area littered with sex shops on every corner, prostitutes giving politicians head in the alleys, crack heads getting their fix on the bus stop benches, and pimps abusing their working women in the middle of the road.

"Watches! I got watches here! Yo, Tae!" Tae squinted his eyes to see who called him from across the street. He saw Omari dressed in a large brown puffer jacket, blue jeans, and knock of Jordans. Tae looked both ways before running across the street. Omari held his hand out for Tae to slap. "How you been, playa?"

"Just got off work." Tae said. "I see you still sellin' fake Rolexes, man."

"Hell yeah! All these wannabe fuckin' gangbangas want some bling bling. They'll buy anything. See this." Omari held out a cheap rosary chain. "I had my three year old niece paint it silver. Shit looks legit. So, you still workin' for Samson?"

"Yeah, pays good. He's a good guy." Tae said.

"Hey Tia!" Omari yelled.

A young Filipino woman strutted down the street towards Tae and Omari. She wore a pink bandeau top exposing her large bust and a pink miniskirt. She rubbed her hands on her toned stomach and licked her full red lips sensually. Her raven black hair was tied into a large bun on the top of her head. She pressed her body onto Tae. She grabbed his hand and let his fingers run across her tan skin before she deliberately placed his hand underneath her miniskirt.

"You sure this won't make you come back?" She asked.

Tae slid his hand from her body. "Tia, I told you to get off the streets."

Tia rolled her eyes. "To what? Flip burgers at Freckle Bitch's."

"Better than flippin' tricks for Loreana." Tae said.

"She pays good." Tia defended her Madame.

"Omari, what time is it?" Tae asked.

Omari looked at one of his fake Rolexes. It was ten after eleven. Tae offered to walk Tia to her apartment on Segundo Street. Tia didn't refuse his assistance. Tae gave his sweater for Tia to wear over her lack of clothes. They walked hand in hand. At one point they stopped at a Brown Baggers on the corner so Tia could pick up a 40 oz.

Tia lied her head on Tae's shoulder as they walked. "Do you still wear it?"

Tae let go of Tia to roll up his sleeve on his left arm. He wore a black beaded bracelet that was identical to the one Tia pulled out from her bandeau.

"Why do you put yours with your tits?" Tae asked.

"Because. I don't want to lose it or have anyone break it or...steal it."

Tae sighed. "Then what's your point of bringing it with you on the streets."

"It makes me feel safe."

"Hold up." Tae abruptly stopped them from taking another step further. There was an empTae lot in front of them. Inside was a Vice King holding his pistol towards dead bodies of Los Carnales and Rollerz. Tae recognized the three Rollerz as Ricky Liu, Joshua Wilkinson, and Freddie Chang. They all had placed orders in the Chop Shop to get their rides tricked out with some hydraulics. There was a burnt Compton smashed into the brick wall with members of the Carnales burnt alive. You could still see the struggle they must have had trying to escape the burning vehicle. The Vice King turned around when he heard Tia gasp at the scene. He walked with a limp and his pistol aiming towards the both of them.

"Who the hell is you?" The Vice King asked.

"We just work at the Brown Baggers down the block." Tae lied.

The Vice King examined Tia's body up and down. He quickly turned his attention to Tae next. He eyed him up and down as well, but something made him stare hard at Tae. The Vice King pointed his pistol at Tae's name on his boiler suit. "You that Taehyung bitch, Tanya told me 'bout."

"Nah, bruddah. You got me confused with someone else."

The Vice King attempted to aim his gun at Tia, but Tae quickly slammed a right hook into his face. The Vice King grunted and responded by pistol whipping Tae in his face. The Vice King pushed him on to the dirt ground that was warmed by the burned Compton. "Tia get out of here!"

"Shut the fuck up!" The Vice King yelled. "You played with motherfuckas at the wrong time and wrong place, dawg!"

Glass shattered over the Vice King and Tae. Alcohol mixed with the Vice King's blood that seeped out of the gash on the side of his face. The Vice King yelled and held his face. Tia dove down to Tae and attempted to help him up.

"Come on, Tae." Tia said.

Blood splattered onto Tae's face. He squinted his eyes, but he could still see Tia falling over onto the dirt lot.

"Tia!" Tae scrambled over to her. She was shot in head and nearly unrecognizable. Her scarlet red blood quickly covered her entire face like a mask. Tae darted his eyes over to the Vice King. "Fuck you!"

The Vice King Tia bashed in the head with her 40 oz reloaded his pistol to shoot Tae next. Tae closed his eyes. He prepared for the bullet.

 _Bang!_

Tae saw a silhouette of a woman. She was walking towards him slowly. With each step she took, his heart pounded faster. "We're in this together..." Her voice echoed through his ears.

Tae forced himself to look at her face when she stood before him. He saw bruises under her brown eyes. Scars dashing across her cheeks and chin. She wore a Catholic schoolgirl uniform and slung a baby blue backpack on her shoulder. Her hair was braided into two pigtails that Tae remembered she also wore for Halloween when she dressed up as Pocahontas.

"Tia..." Tae said her name under her breath.

Tia reached her hand out and grabbed Tae's hand. "I've never felt so alive, Tae."

"You saved me."

Tia knelt down to Tae's level. She rustled through his hair and said, "Remember when we were kids in Catholic school. I always dreamt about what this place looked like and who'd I meet."

"...Tia."

"It's so beautiful." Tia said. "No one can hurt you here, Tae. I want you see it some day. When you're ready. I was ready. That's why I saved you. You still have a purpose to fulfill. Being here is my purpose."

Tae squeezed onto Tia's hand when her figure slowly began to fade into a pure golden light. "Don't go..."

"I'll never leave you Tae. I'll always be by your side. Now, get up Tae. Get up. Get up..."

The words chanted in Tae's head. He kept hearing Tia's voice telling him to get up, but her angelic tone began changing into a deep voice of a man.

"Get up, Playa."

Tae opened his eyes to a young Jesus. He had well-kept brown hair, creamy clear skin, and light brown eyes. He wore a purple button up Polo shirt and blue jeans. It dawned across Tae that it wasn't a young version of Jesus when he saw the shotgun in the man's hand and a cigarette hanging from the side of his mouth. Alongside him was a middle-aged Black man. He wore a black beret over his bald head. His black trench coat was stained with dirt. He too wore a purple shirt, but he adorned himself that gold chains and a crucifix pendant. Tae glanced over to Tia's dead body and saw the dead body of the Vice King besides her.

Tae lifted himself up from the ground. The Black man patted Tae on his back. "She would've made a good Saint. The way she sacrificed herself for you." The man commented on Tia.

"Julius, call an ambulance." The White man said.

Julius held his hand out for Tae to shake, but Tae didn't move. His brown eyes kept traveling down to Tia's corpse. "We need an ambulance. Just like he said! We need an ambulance! Call 911!" Tae yelled.

"I'm Julius Little." He said. "That's Troy."

Troy proceeded to make his way closer to Julius. "Julius, we need to help her."

"The fuck are you standin' around for!" Tae brought himself to his knees.

Tae grabbed Tia's wrist. He checked for a pulse. No sign. He rested his index and middle finger on her neck. There was no sign of life there either.

"The Row ain't safe no more, son. Try and call an ambulance. They'll never come. We're in Mission Beach. The medics don't bother comin' out here because we got gangs fightin' over shit that ain't theirs and you in the way, they don't care if you're representin' or not. She's dead. Don't cry. Do somethin' about it and come down to the Church if you want to be a part of the solution."

Julius hastily walked out of the lot with Troy by his side.

Tae grabbed his cellphone from the ground where he dropped it. He dialed 911. The operator picked up the call in a heartbeat.

 _"911 what is your emergency?"_

"I'm on Lincoln Avenue. My friend was shot."

 _"Lincoln Avenue in Mission Beach, sir?"_

"Yes."

 _"I'm sorry sir, but the EMTs will not be able to-"_

Tae threw his phone to the ground, smashing the touch screen rendering the phone faulTae. Tae covered his face with his hands. He dug his dull nails into his skin to fight the tears that were attempting to escape his eyes. Tae took a deep breath and looked up to the dark sky.

"God..." The holy Father's name croaked out of Tae's throat. "I need your help..."

Tae groaned and hung his head down. From the corner of his eye he could see the dead Vice King. Tae's hand shook uncontrollably for the gun the Vice king wielded when he was alive. Tae tried to keep a grip on the gun and a steady aim on the Vice King's head. He placed his finger on the trigger. _Bang! Bang! Bang!_ He wished bullets came out of the empTae gun. He wished he could lodge enough bullets in the Vice King's face so he wouldn't be recognizable to anyone who knew him.

Tae threw the gun to the other side of the lot. He grabbed Tia's heavy corpse and lied her across him. She was still warm. Her blood covered her entire face. Tae managed to look past the gaping bullet hole on her face. She was unrecognizable psychically, but Tae knew her on the inside. Who Tia really was.

"Remember when we were kids and...we got married in...in my dad's backyard. We gave each other these bracelets that you made...we never took them off..." Tae said. "I'm not gonna let you down T."

Tae gathered the strength to lift Tia in his arms. He walked down the street uneasily to a payphone. He had no money on him, but he remembered a trick Tia taught him when they were eleven to make the payphone work without money. Tae lifted the phone to his ear and dialed the number to the Chop Shop. Samson answered on the second ring.

 _"You've reached Samson's Chop Shop. This is Samson, how can I-"_

"Samson it's Tae," Tae cut him off. "Samson I need you to pick me up on Lincoln Avenue. Please...come quick..."

 _"I'll be there."_

Tae placed the phone back on the hook. He lifted Tia's dangling head, but when his fingers slipped across her neck he felt a slight pulse.

"Tia!" He screamed her name. "Tia...stay with me. Stay with me, T. I promise I'll do something about this new gang. We don't need any more flags flyin'."


	2. It'll Be Like NASCAR

Peep This Theaters was filled with a full crowd this Friday night. They were having a marathon of Wes Craven films for the Halloween season. Couples made up the majority of the crowd. The men had a plan; take their girlfriend or wife to a horror flick, let her get scared, say you'll protect her, make out a little in the theater, and get laid once you leave. Tae sat alone at the top tier section of the theater. He slouched in his seat with his hoodie over his head, covering most of his face.

His arms lied on the armrests of his chair. His jaded eyes stared at the pitch black screen but slowly drifted their direction to a young couple two rows below him.

"Baby I'm scared," Tae heard the female try to whisper amongst people smacking on popcorn and slurping down the last of their icees already.

Her boyfriend mumbled something in her ear. He must have said something to put her at ease since they shared a short peck after. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in to get closer to him as the lights in the theater started to dim for the previews of Mortal Kumbath 2, Comatose Whores 4, and Kernel Cornhole.

Tae fiddled with his bracelet that was identical to the one Tia wore.

"Holy shit..." An Asian man dressed in a blue baseball jersey at the ground floor of the theater pointed at Tae. He was accompanied by an Asian woman dressed in a blue mini dress and a White man besides him wearing a blue button up pullover and khaki Stalker shorts. "Yo, that you Tae!"

Tae recognized the three of them as AJ Huang, Michelle Ng, and Michael Drake. Tae barely lifted his finger to acknowledge the three of them.

"I think that's him." Tae heard Michael say as they walked up the steps to get to his row.

Tae didn't move a muscle as they occupied the empty seats around him. Michael took the seat on his left. AJ took the seat on his right and Michelle took the seat next to AJ. She combed through her back length dyed light brown hair with her long red acrylic nails.

Tae could smell the pungent smell of cognac on AJ's breath when he smiled to show off his new gold grill covering his teeth.

"Bruh, just got a new set." AJ said. "Looks fly."

Tae nodded his head only for him to shut up, but it didn't work on Michael.

"Yo, what got you actin' like a sad little bitch?" Michael reached over the row to grab a woman's box of popcorn for himself. "This bout what happened in Mission Beach to Ricky Liu, Josh, and Freddie Chang?"

"Fuck you," Tae grumbled out. He stood up just as the previews ended and started his way out of the theater.

AJ squeezed his hand on Michelle's milky white thigh and kissed her red lips. "I'll be back, ma."

AJ grabbed a handful of popcorn from Michael before exiting the theater to find Tae entering the men's restroom. AJ followed Tae inside and shook his head when he saw him turn on the faucet to one of the seven sinks and splash water in his face.

"All for that bitch." AJ leaned on the wall beside a stained urinal. He dug into his pants pocket to retrieve a cigarette.

"Don't call her that." Tae growled.

"Hey, she's dead. So is Ricky Liu, Freddie Chang, and...no one really gave a shit about Josh. Not even Donnie." AJ slipped the cigarette in between his parted lips.

"What the fuck are you gettin' at?" Tae asked.

"When someone's dead, they're dead." AJ said.

Tae sighed. He ripped off a paper towel from the dispenser to dry his face off. "Why did I even ask?" Tae mumbled.

"Look, homie, I'm tryin' to say when someone's dead you let them go. Move on with yo'self. Know what? I think there's somethin' you can do to take your mind off that bitch." AJ smirked.

Tae's looked up to see AJ behind him in the mirror reflection. "What?"

"Tune up some rides for our race tonight."

"Race?"

" _The_ race. Joseph set it up in Chinatown. To see who will or won't make the cut to be one of the Rollerz." AJ explained. "And with your mechanical expertise...it's gonna be a fuckin' NASCAR race! Everyone's gonna be there. So, you in?"

* * *

"So, you in?"

Sitting on the graffiti-stained steps of the Saint's Row Church in Mission Beach was a Black man with short brown dreadlocks covered partially by a purple visor. He was wearing denim jeans, a matching denim jacket, and a purple polo shirt underneath. He was Dexter Jackson, but everyone called him Dex. Next to him on the steps was an Irish guy wearing a purple button up shirt with one horizontal stripe in the middle and blue jeans. He threw the smoked out cigarette onto the step below him and stomped it out. He was Troy Bradshaw. Sitting above both of them, cleaning off a new Tombstone he had stolen from the Friendly Fire down the street, was an Asian of unknown decent named Johnny Gat. He wore a pair of tinted sunglasses over his eyes, he wore black chinos, an unbuttoned purple shirt with a white t-shirt underneath, and had spiky black hair with bleached white tips.

Standing at the bottom of the steps was an Asian woman named Lin. She had black hair pinned up in a bun with chopsticks. She wore a skin tight black midriff vest and dark blue racing pants. She had milky white skin that glowed under the moonlight and a voice that sounded reminiscent of Tia Carrere.

"The Rollerz are havin' a race tonight." Lin replied to Dex without really answering his question until she said, "I'm not in unless I prove myself."

"That can't be too hard. You're a badass racer." Johnny said. "But if they ask you to punch, you better race your ass back to the Church. You keep throwin' your shoulder too much."

"Shut up Johnny." Lin rolled her eyes. He held her hand out for Troy to give her a cigarette. Once she had it, she placed it in between her plump lips and retrieved her lighter from her pants pocket.

"You know people are gonna cheat." Troy said.

Johnny took his hand off of his Tombstone to point at Troy and nodded his head in agreement. "Hell yeah. Get your ride tuned up at the Chop Shop."

"Nobody touches my car." Lin said.

"You know how to hook it up with NOS?" Johnny asked with a smile, knowing Lin wouldn't be able to say yes.

"Fuck you." Lin placed her hands on her hips. "I'm the best damn racer in Stilwater. I don't need NOS to beat these assholes."

"Which'll get you in with the Westside Rollerz faster." Johnny, Troy, Dex, and Lin looked up to the front entrance of the church to see Julius watching over them.

"Exactly, the race starts in an hour in Chinatown. I'm gonna head over." Lin started her way to her tricked out Voxel. It's body was candy paint pinafore blue and metallic satin bright white. The car had chrome racing rims and a regular stock grill and sport bumpers. The racing spoiler was the same pinafore blue color. The windows were tinted, which helped whenever to avoid her face being showed on the pictures taken from the street cameras when she ran red lights over 80 miles per hour.

"Lin," Julius' authoritative voice stopped Lin in her tracks. "I need you to stop by Samson's Chop Shop anyway. Tell him 'bout what we cookin' on you bein' with the Rollerz."

"Will do, boss man." Lin said.

Troy blew a cloud of smoke into the cold air. "Get some NOS while you're there. May come in handy."

Lin lifted her hand in the air and threw her middle finger up in Troy and Johnny's direction as she walked over to her lonely Voxel sitting in the Brown Baggers parking lot across the street.

* * *

Tricked out Mockingbirds, Voxels, Zimoses, Ricochets, and Quasars were parked in the dirt filled lot in front of the Wrecking Service Chop Shop in Chinatown right besides the freeway. There was a large crowd of people in the lot dancing the night away to music playing on The Kronic 92.2. They held plastic red cups filled with bubbly and gin n' juice. Some were Rollerz and others were people looking for a good time. Tae weaved his way through the large crowd to find AJ sitting on the roof of his blue Voxel with Michelle leaning on the side of the car. He was taking a hit from a bong that another Roller, Tae recognized as Shang, passed him.

"Hey, Tae." Michelle lifted her right hand slowly.

"Tae," AJ tossed the bong to another Roller. He stood up on the car and jumped off to be face to face with Tae. "My brotha from a Korean motha. We got some shit to talk 'bout. Over there..."

AJ patted his hand on Tae's back and kept it there as he led them inside the Chop Shop garage where there were less people. They stood by the tools stored on the wall. AJ picked up a hammer and a wrench.

"Put those down, this ain't your shop." Tae scolded.

"Shut the fuck up. I was just seein' 'em." AJ said. "Look, I need you to do us a favor."

"I'm not doin' you any favors."

"You owe me!" AJ raised his voice. "From back in the day. You fuckin' owe me."

Tae sighed. He crossed his arms over his chest and asked, "What do you want? I already did you a favor. I put the NOS in your car, that's good enough."

"No. It's not good enough. See them fuckers over there." AJ pointed the wrench in the direction he wanted Tae to look.

Tae squinted his eyes over to the freeway pillar. There were five Black guys dressed in blue. They were leaning on their blue Comptons. Tae could tell it was a fresh paint job.

"What about 'em?" Tae asked.

"They ain't Rollerz."

"You a racial profiler now?"

"Rollerz don't care about skin color man. If you can race, that's all that matters. I seen them around Pleasant View tryna snatch some hos we took from that fat ass, beer belly fucker named Helmer." AJ explained.

"Where the hell are you goin' with this?"

"They're Vice Kings. I think they're tryin' to sabotage us. It's easy to do drive-bys in a race. What I want you...no...what I _need_ you to do is go give them bitches a taste of their own meds. I'll have Michelle and Lian district 'em. In the meantime, you fuck with the breaks in their car. Send those Vice Queens to their grave." AJ smiled when he placed the wrench in Tae's hand. "Get to work."

* * *

The light emerging from Samson's Chop Shop looked like a fallen star in the night. Lin pulled her Voxel into the open garage and parked inside. Lin rolled down her tinted windows, but she couldn't see Samson inside the garage. She pulled up her parking break and took her keys out of the ignition.

'Lin stepped out of her Voxel and looked around the garage. Tools were scattered on the greased stained floor. Lin hauled over a few tires on the floor that blocked her way to the office door that read, **EMPLOYEES ONLY**. Lin opened the door and walked inside regardless of what was written on the door. In the employee recreation room there was an old TV struggling to get a signal to play a commercial for Alderman Hughes mayoral campaign. Lin saw Samson in the corner of the room with his forehead pressed on the cement wall. He held his Ill Wireless flip phone to his ear as he listened to the person Lin could faintly hear talking to him on the other end.

"...Misunderstanding? They trashed the Shop. But...hey, don't sweat it. We'll talk about this when you get back." Samson flipped his phone shut and stuffed it into the pocket of his olive green jumpsuit.

"Samson," Lin called his name, making him turn around with a smile.

"Lin. How you doin'?" Samson asked.

"Julius said I should get some NOS for the race tonight." Lin walked with Samson back to the garage where her Voxel sat alone.

"Gettin' the Saints' name out there." Samson guessed.

"I'm tryin' to get in good with the Rollerz." Lin said. "Be undercover. Julius only trusts me to do this."

"You're smarter than the boys." Samson grabbed his toolbox.

"So, what was all that about. They trashed the Shop." Lin repeated what Samson said on the phone.

Samson shrugged his shoulders. "My mechanic, Tae. You met him, right?"

"Never heard of him."

"Well, he's goin' through a tough time right now. His friend got killed last week and...he hasn't really dealt with it. He doesn't talk about it and when you think he might, he runs off to Peep This and watches some damn movie to take his mind away from the real world." Samson said. "I left him in charge of the shop today and some Rollerz came in and ransacked the placed."

"How do you know it was the Rollerz?" Lin asked.

Samson pointed over to some graffiti the Rollerz spray-painted onto the wall over his and Tae's lockers.

"I'm not mad at the kid. I just want him to be careful. Don't mix with the gangs."

* * *

"You know Warren's fuckin' her right." One of the Vice Kings posed as a Roller commented when Aisha's song Bounce Like My Checks played on their Compton's radio.

"Who? Aisha?" The other Vice King lifted his eyebrows in shock.

"Nah, nigga, Tanya." The Vice King corrected him. "Big Tony wanted me to drop off some of the RPGs he got at his place. So, I get up to his place and I hear Warren and Tanya up in there."

"What was they doin'?"

"They was talkin'."

"Nigga, that don't mean shit. Of course they was talkin'. They're King's right hands." The VK dismissed the rumor. "This nigga always tryna start gossip like he's TMZ."

The Vice King's attention went to Michelle and Lian when they strutted over to them. While their eyes were focused on the women, Tae scurried over to the two Compton's and went to work on disabling their breaks just as AJ wanted.

The crowd began to cheer loudly as a new car slowly drove inside the lot. AJ jogged out of the garage to see what it was that they were cheering for. He watched as a blue and white Voxel rolled inside. It's engine roared like a lion. The crowd surrounded it as it parked next to AJ's Voxel, overshadowing it.

"Shit!" AJ exclaimed when he saw the Voxel.

Lin opened the door to the car and stepped outside. She raised her hands in the air and reveled from the excited cheers of the crowd.

AJ threw the tool to the ground. "Fuck is that?"

Shang approached AJ and stood beside him. "That's Lin."

"Who?"

"She's the best racer in Chinatown." Shang said.

"Why haven't I heard of her?"

Shang smirked. "She has tits."

AJ and Shang left the garage to go over to Lin. AJ let his hand slide on the roof of Lin's Voxel.

"Hey, don't touch my fuckin' car." Lin said. The crowd hoped for a fight to break out.

"You tryna race?" AJ asked.

"What're we betting?" Lin asked.

"A thousand." AJ said.

Lin placed her hands on her hips. "That's it? Why don't we kick it a nickel?"

"Eh, hold up!" A Latino racer raised his hand. He placed his plastic red cup on the roof of his Mockingbird. "Nobody said nothin' about raisin' the stakes."

"If that's the case..." Lin started her way towards the racer. "Why don't you ask these nice people to back up out of the way so you can drive your sorry ass home?"

The crowd exclaimed loudly in unison. The racer turned over to them and shook his head and said, "Eh, eh, eh, eh," to shut them up. "Okay. Thirty-five large."

The racer dug into his pocket and pulled out three thousand five hundred dollars. AJ and Shang walked over to him as well to grab the money. Lin reached into the pocket of her racing pants and retrieved her money as well. She placed it in AJ's open hand and walked back to her Voxel. AJ and Shang proceeded to get the money from each racer. They walked over to the Vice Kings pretending to be Rollerz and held their hand out.

"Thirty-five large, huh?" One of the Kings asked.

"Either that or you can go home, bruh." Shang said.

"Yeah," The VK slapped a pile of cash into Shang's hand. "It's all there."

"Better be." Shang flipped through the cash as he and AJ walked over to the rest of the racers.

Lin got back into her Voxel. The Vice Kings went in theirs. The Latino racer went in his car. After retrieving all of the money, Shang announced for the crowd to step away for the five racers to drive out onto the street. The cars were lined up horizontally: Lin's Voxel, AJ's Voxel, the Latino's flamed painted La Fuerza, and the two Comptons the Vice Kings were driving. Michelle stood on the side of the cars. She pointed at each car and said, "Ready. Go!"

Each racer slammed their foot down on their gas. Their tires indented black marks into the gravel of the road as they sped off. The crowd ran behind screaming happily and jumping around until the cars could no longer be seen. One guy rammed into Tae, causing him to drop his red cup of water.

Lin kept her eyes on the road ahead, calculating each time she'd have to shift gears. She was in the lead, up until AJ dashed ahead of her.

The Vice Kings rolled down their windows. They grabbed the VICE 9's they stowed in their Comptons and pointed them out the window to Lin's Voxel. They started shooting. Lin grit her teeth and yelled, "Motherfucker!"

She drifted on the right turn, receiving a few bullets on the passenger side door. The Vice King's pressed their feet down on the breaks to slow down for the turn, but it wasn't working.

"It's not workin'! It ain't workin' Lamar!" One of the Vice King's yelled.

Lin watched the Vice King's cars crash into the building from her rearview mirror. The Latino was now in third place with the Kings out of the way. Lin was right behind AJ.

"Move out the way, bitch!" The Latino screamed out. He used his nitrous to speed pass Lin and AJ. While he was busy laughing, he took his eyes off the road. It's a shame he did that. It could've helped him realize there was a semi-truck in the middle of the road before he crashed into it. His airbags went off, saving him, but leaving him behind in the race for good.

AJ and Lin were the only two left in the race.

Lin rammed her Voxel into the back of AJ's Voxel. He swerved around to get her off of him. They were side by side.

"Get ready for this, bitch!" AJ yelled.

The crowd back at the lot drove or ran over to the Chinese Gardens bridge . Shang smiled and wrapped his arm around Tae's shoulders while he raised his walkie-talkie to his mouth. "Bring it up!"

The red bridge started to raise up like a ramp on Shang's cue. AJ and Lin came up onto the bridge. AJ impulsively pressed his NOS early. Lin waited until she was closer to the bridge to press the NOS that Samson hooked her up with. Lin's speedometer needle went over 160. AJ's was already at 180. The went up the ramp.

"Fuck!" AJ screamed as his car flew in the air.

Lin's Voxel cast a shadow over AJ's Voxel from being higher in the air. "Woo!" She screamed.

AJ watched, wide-eyed, as Lin's Voxel flew over his and when they landed she was in the lead. AJ's tires blew out as soon as he hit the gravel and his car swerved into Ting Pau Clank's Oriental Gifts N' Art shop. Lin smiled at AJ's crash. The crowd ran away as Lin's car drifted into the finish. Lin kept her smile for the cheer of the crowd. Shang nodded his head in approval of her win.

"So she won the money." Tae said.

Shang kept on nodding his head. "And she's gonna be a Roller. I'll be damned if she's not."


End file.
